Laptop Advice

I recently had my laptop stolen from a venue I was working at. I won’t go into too much details about it as its still in discussions but I felt I should help everyone by giving them some advice on steps to take now to make reduce the chances of this happening to you and make the impact less if it does.

1. BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER REGULARLY – I cannot state how important this is. Fortunately for me I was backed up. But if I wasn’t lost accounts, projects, photo’s its not even worth thinking about!! I suggest at least getting a dedicated back up hard drive (make sure you leave it at home and not with your laptop or it could get stolen too!) I have a Macbook and Apple’s Time Machine software is exceptional for making backing up easy, I am sure there is similar backup software available for Windows and Linux machines. However I would still suggest very important files are still also backed up manually. Backup on a weekly basis, not when you feel like it!

2. GET SOME INSURANCE – Several companies now offer this service and its definitely worth the money! I recommend Protect your Bubble.

3. BUY A KENSINGTON LOCK – Mine wasn’t out when it was taken so my lock wasn’t on. But more often than not they are taken when there out, particularly at FOH. I recommend getting a lock for when this is! More so I have now even taken the step of locking my laptop up in my bag and left.

4. INSTALL SURVIELENCE SOFTWARE– This is a piece of software which will report on who is using your laptop and allow you to shut it down remotely. It could give you and the police clues as to who has taken it (and maybe even get it back). I am now using some software called Prey, but a media story recently about this showed another piece of software called Hidden.

5. BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER REGULARLY – If you have reached the bottom of this list and haven’t started to backup already you should be!!

Hopefully this will help you save your laptop and reduce the impact if it does.